14 seaside restaurants in Robe to dine at now

Dilvin Yasa Dilvin Yasa
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Whether you’re after something casual, classic or cool, we’ve got the ultimate Robe restaurants list to keep you munching from breakfast to nightcap.

Super-fresh lobsters by the sea, a classic pub lunch in front of a roaring fire, or casual Mexican in a beer garden? Sure, you could spend hours frantically looking up Robe restaurants in a bid to find the finest place to eat in this picturesque seaside town, or you could take a look at our ultimate dining guide and make a booking pronto.

1. Caledonian Inn

a seafood platter with sea views at Caledonian Inn
The Caledonian Inn is a historic English-style pub by the sea with a lively atmosphere. (Image: Mark Fitzpatrick)

Will it be a cosy fireside steak and a glass of red, or fish and chips and a light ale in the sun-dappled beer garden? At the Caledonian Inn, a historic English-style pub much loved for its hugely popular roast nights (every Wednesday night), the correct answer is ‘why not both?’. Whether you’re after burgers at lunch or something more decadent for dinner, such as their signature schnitty and a platter of oysters, Caledonian Inn has a table for every occasion with live music nights and a solid kids’ menu to boot.

Address: 1 Victoria Street, Robe

2. Mahalia Coffee House

You can smell the freshly roasted beans of Mahalia Coffee House long before you pull up outside, an invitation for the ages. Located in Robe’s industrial heartland, a (very) short drive away from the main strip, this is the place to drop in to consume your body weight in coffee, buy bags of beans, coffee-making accessories, even a new coffee machine or settle in for one of the most decadent breakfasts going on the Limestone Coast. Fancy southern rock lobster on Turkish or blueberry waffles? Treat yourself – the folks don’t charge for that extra shot either.

Address: 2 Flint Street, Robe

3. Drift Cafe

the cafe exterior of Drift Cafe, Robe
Drift Cafe creates a warm and inviting dining space with its coastal calm aesthetic. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Get in early to nab a place at Drift Cafe, an architecturally designed coastal space teeming with folks keen to get their hands on the cafe’s signature Mexican street corn fritters.

Bring your laptop and – provided you don’t have to hold any Zoom meetings over the playlist featuring the likes of Nirvana and Radiohead – get a little work done, relax over a halloumi burger on the deck, or enjoy a picnic on the lawn. Here, it’s your breakfast or lunch experience, your way.

Address: 3 Victoria Street, Robe

4. Sails at Robe

When you’re looking for something a little more upscale, it’s hard to go past Sails at Robe, a fine dining establishment celebrated for serving some of the freshest seafood on the Limestone Coast. Don’t let the ‘fine dining’ label put you off – Sails at Robe leans towards casual contemporary, whether you’re after an intimate dinner for two in its wine bar, or a seafood platter under the sun with a group of friends. Make sure to order the lobster thermidor, squid ink risotto and Peruvian-style ceviche. There’s a beverage list for every menu, and a little something for the kids, too.

Address: 2 Victoria Street, Robe

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5. Robe Town Brewery

clinking two glasses of beer at Robe Town Brewery
The 20-plus range of brews range from light sours to thick stouts.

Welcome to the only wood-fired brewery in the country, a space where old-school, low-tech methods are utilised to make a vast range of beer, with at least 20 styles of brew – ranging from light sours to thick stouts – are on offer at any one time. Featuring a tap and a cellar door for tasting and takeaway, be sure to stop by Robe Town Brewery on live music nights (Friday) or Open Mic Days (the second Sunday of each month) when the venue is particularly pumping. While snacks and occasionally, the Loose Menu Food Truck, are available, BYO food is not only welcomed but encouraged.

Address: 10 White Street, Robe

6. The Cutter Lapwing

You have to admit that it’s hard to go past a quaint stone cottage with a white picket fence, particularly when the wind is biting and the fire is roaring inside. Happily, The Cutter Lapwing might have that cool weather ambience in spades, but the family-owned espresso bar also backs up the aesthetics with a menu that runs the gamut from cakes and hot sticky buns (a popular choice with both locals and visitors) to healthy lunch. Nab an outdoor table in the sun if you can.

Address: 46 Victoria Street, Robe

7. Robe Ice Cream

two children running at the entrance of Robe Ice Cream
Robe Ice Cream churns out a delicious range of homemade premium gelato. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission/Adam Bruzzone)

It’s hard to miss the signage to this ice creamery – or the kids screaming with excitement the minute they clock it. Either way, why resist the urge to revisit your childhood? Robe Ice Cream isn’t just any old ice creamery, but makers of homemade premium gelato, serving up their sweet treats in a pet-friendly tropical oasis garden.

Can’t decide between cookies and cream, bubble gum or any of your other classic flavours? You could always opt for a milkshake, doughnuts or go crazy digging through their vast range of confectionery.

Address: 35 Victoria Street, Robe

8. The Pastry Place 

What’s a picturesque coastal town without a key bakery keeping the locals rolling in homemade gourmet pies, sausage rolls and pasties? The Pastry Place is the place to pop by for the basics (croissants to enjoy alongside your Sunday morning coffee, a pie to devour while you take a scenic drive), but don’t make the mistake of believing it’s like any other – unless of course, you’re convinced everyone else is baking the likes of crayfish croissants. Do yourself a favour and say yes to a sweet treat too; The Pastry Place is just as celebrated for its cakes.

Address: 6 Union Street, Robe

9. Union Cafe

Why settle for a piece of toast when you can head to Union Cafe and order something a little more decadent, such as a herb-crumbed eggplant harissa yoghurt, fried kale, asparagus, avocado with poached egg, or perhaps those buttermilk pancakes? This light-filled cafe is the place to be at breakfast or at lunch, just get your running shoes on any time the soup specials are announced – these crowd-pleasers are guaranteed to run out the door. Should you stay for the coffee and cake? Definitely. Both rank among the best in town.

Address: Shop 4, 17–19 Victoria Street, Robe

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10. Hook and Harvest

There’s nothing like beachside living (even for just a few days) to make you question whether it’s time to live your healthiest life – or perhaps just step away from the cafes and pies for a little while. Hook and Harvest will help you achieve your goal, offering a solid range of protein shakes, refreshing acai bowls, salads and green juices as well as all that metabolism-burning coffee. For those keen to go the distance, you might even be swayed to join their run club.

Address: 21 Victoria Street, Robe

11. The Dock at Sky Seafoods

There’s eating seafood, and then there’s becoming personally invested in where your fresh seafood comes from. At The Dock at Sky Seafoods, the focus is firmly on the latter, the team offering regular factory tours of their lobster facility, and encouraging diners to select their own specimens from tanks to be cooked on premises for that perfect seafood platter onsite, or a takeaway meal. It isn’t ALL about seafood, of course; diners can also enjoy local wines and beers on tap, or shop for a range of locally made relishes and sauces to take home.

Address: 58 Robe Street, Robe

12. West Beach Cantina

Take a seat among the towering cacti surrounding West Beach Cantina’s beer garden and transport yourself to a Mexican getaway where the margaritas are iced and the burrito bowls plentiful. There’s two things you need to know about a meal at this popular eatery:  you’ll need to get in early to nab an outdoor table on a warm, sunny day, and you’ll need to put in your order for the Baja fish as quickly as possible – it’s one of their popular menu items for a reason. Nachos, burritos and fajitas consumed, there’s only one question left to ask: will you leave without buying West Beach Cantina merch? Probably not, but that’s all part of its charm.

Address: 30 – 32 Victoria Street, Robe

13. Robe Hotel

Interior of Robe Hotel
The region’s oldest pub features multiple indoor and outdoor dining spaces. (Image: Kelsey Zafiridis Photography)

Sometimes you just need a charming pub serving all the classics, and the Robe Hotel plays its role perfectly. One of the region’s oldest pubs (it first opened its doors in 1849) and located a stone’s throw from the beach, Robe Hotel achieves the near-impossible task of having something for everyone, even offering bark-cuterie boards for your four-legged dining companions.

The home of towering burgers, premium steaks and a menu teeming with locally farmed produce, they also have local beers and ciders on tap as well as a wine list that features premium vino from around the globe. Kids eat free on Sundays.

Address: 6 Mundy Terrace, Robe

14. Viet 21

a mini bahn mi platter at Viet 21, Robe
Viet 21’s famous bahn mi platter.

Look away from the pasta and schnitzel specials; you’re here for Viet 21’s super-popular banh mi. A recent addition to Robe’s dining landscape, the casual eatery has quickly become the place to go for its authentic pho, vermicelli noodle bowls and rice paper rolls. Dine in or take away, but don’t miss checking out the daily specials (or their winter melon tea if available).

Address: 21A Victoria Street, Robe

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Dilvin Yasa
Dilvin Yasa is a freelance journalist, author and TV presenter whose travels have taken her from the iceberg graveyards of Antarctica to the roaring rapids of Uganda. Always on the lookout for that next unforgettable meal, wildlife moment or 80s-themed nightclub, she is inexplicably drawn to polar destinations despite detesting the cold.
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Inside Geelong’s glow-up from factory town to creative capital

    Chloe Cann Chloe Cann
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    Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated. 

    Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.  

    Geelong cellar door wine bar
    Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

    Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct 

    Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.  

    Paddock Bakery andPatisserie
    Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

    At Paddock, one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand. 

    Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design 

    Paddock Bakery
    Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

    “A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.  

    And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

    Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.  

    As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.  

    The rise of a food and wine destination  

    boiler house
    Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

    Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915. Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco. 

    Woolstore
    The Woolstore is a new restaurant and bar housed within a century-old warehouse. (Image: Amy Carlon)

     The Woolstore, one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.  

    Woolstore menu
    Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

    Breathing new life into historic spaces  

    On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.  

    “We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.” 

    Provenance Wines
    Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

    The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

    While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.  

    handcrafted pieces
    Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

    The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”  

    A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”  

    Elizabeth Bell
    Ceramicist Elizabeth Bell has a store in Fyansford Paper Mill.